If there's a way I could travel the world freely without having to think of resources, time and obligations, then consider me the luckiest person in the world. It's not a quote. It's just me.
I love to travel. I love it so much that I've made it one of my top three goals for 2010. I want this year to be full of happy memories and experiences brought by traveling. I want to move around and rediscover culture, people, food, sights and places. I want to escape my life from time to time and recuperate. I always come out better whenever I travel. It's tried and tested. I've already gone beyond reading this time. Now I'm seriously moving.
It was just ironic that I was born in a family that aren't travelers. They are more identified as tourists. They don't like moving around that much. They are comfort zone eaters.. For them, traveling is intangible, a worthless piece of emotional and physical investment that is a waste of time and energy. That's why whenever we go somewhere maybe out of obligation or a need for a bonding moment, I take advantage of it no matter how limiting it's always been. I just make the most out if it and move around meaningfully. I try my best to encourage them to skip the usual activities and instead make our own, but sadly I'm always outnumbered. I just like to discover new things until I was old enough to plan and pay for my own trips. For the past couple of years, I had commendable self-initiated travel expeditions that introduced this hobby of mine to a goal then passion. For now, I've decided to go ahead full blast. Resources or with no resources, next to writing, I'm now fulfilling my destiny to travel.
I know now that traveling is not that glamorous. It's not about booking the first class hotel and scheduling yourself in the hands of a tourist guide. Although it helps sometimes if the need is to relax, disappear and if your mind is burned out, but traveling for me always starts from scratch. It starts whenever I search the internet. It happens when I study the history, sights and places that I want to see. It starts when I've decided on where to go and how I would want to go there. The road less traveled is always better. Commute than hire a guide. I may not be a fan of walking around my own neighborhood, but rest assured I would walk around, ride public transportation and get dirty when traveling. In traveling, one has to be vulnerable on these things to properly discover what we need to discover. Walking around the block and noticing how people talk and converse is something not included in the tour package. Walking at 6 am, riding the train and going to the other part of the island to have breakfast, is a surrender to spontaneity and endless discovery. Being in the middle of a crowded place in a foreign land is the best place to be. Traveling is getting to know the country, the culture and everyday life better and unfortunately it's not entirely about luxury.
Since traveling is not always glamorous, secure and predictable, it's enough to scare the penniless control freak any day. But traveling should be flexible. It need not be expensive. The demands make it more expensive, not traveling. The difference is, the traveler is flexible while the tourist only works and depends on a certain budget.
Traveling also opens my mind to rediscover new things and to rediscover myself. Traveling is more internal than external. It made me discover that I have the capability to walk 12 hours non-stop because I know that whenever I see new sights, breathe that scent of foreign land, see how people go about their normal lives, the pain automatically washes away. I know because it happened to me. Traveling makes me feel such a child who doesn't know anything, but coming out of the experience would make me wiser and more open to accept differences.
Traveling is also a certified therapy for me. There are days when I want to escape and expose myself to new and positive energy. Traveling has always been the answer. Other people might have shopping, some may have sports and racing, while I let off steam by Traveling. It occupies the mind with visuals and senses too much that I couldn't think of anything else. It transfers me to peek on a new life and tickle my imagination. It's always a liberating experience to be able to compare and learn your way in a land that isn't familiar to you.
If I could do this forever, I would. If I have a good amount of resources right now, I most definitely would visit even the remotest of places just to eat their local bread and embrace the scenery. I would resign from my job and entirely devote myself in making my own itineraries and I'm sure I would learn more than ever. Traveling may have started as a simple hobby, but now it's my new passion.
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